This was in part because working-class women often held jobs that required interaction with men. The ideal of seclusion was not fully realized as social reality. They were guarded by eunuchs and could only leave the home "veiled and suitably chaperoned." Some of these customs were borrowed from the Persians, but Greek society also influenced the development of patriarchal tradition. Women were not supposed to be seen in public. For example, contemporary sources from the Byzantine Empire describe the social norms that governed women's lives. Leila Ahmed describes the ideal of seclusion as "a man's right to keep his women concealed-invisible to other men." Ahmed identifies the practice of seclusion as a social ideal and one of the major factors that shaped the lives of women in the Mediterranean Middle East. Jaipur, late 18 century, National Museum, New Delhi Some scholars have used the term to refer to polygynous royal households throughout history. The practice of female seclusion is not exclusive to Islam, but the English word harem usually denotes the domestic space reserved for women in Muslim households. In the Ottoman Turkish language, the harem, i.e., the part of the house reserved for women was called haremlik, while the space open for men was known as selamlık. In English the term harem can mean also "the wives (or concubines) of a polygamous man." The triliteral Ḥ-R-M appears in other terms related to the notion of interdiction such as haram (forbidden), mahram (unmarriageable relative), ihram (a pilgrim's state of ritual consecration during the Hajj) and al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf ("the noble sanctuary", which can refer to the Temple Mount or the sanctuary of Mecca). It comes from the Arabic ḥarīm, which can mean "a sacred inviolable place", "harem" or "female members of the family". The word has been recorded in the English language since the early 17th century. In many periods of Islamic history, women in the harem exercised various degrees of political power, such as the Sultanate of Women in the Ottoman Empire. Some earlier European Renaissance paintings dating to the 16th century portray the women of the Ottoman harem as individuals of status and political significance. In the West, the harem, often depicted as a hidden world of sexual subjugation where numerous women lounged in suggestive poses, has influenced many paintings, stage productions, films and literary works. In traditional Persian residential architecture the women's quarters were known as andaruni ( Persian: اندرونی meaning inside), and in the Indian subcontinent as zenana ( Urdu: زنانہ).Īlthough the institution has experienced a sharp decline in the modern era due to a rise in education and economic opportunities for women, as well as the influence of Western culture, the seclusion of women is still practiced in some parts of the world, such as rural Afghanistan and conservative states of the Persian Gulf. Similar institutions have been common in other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations, especially among royal and upper-class families, and the term is sometimes used in other contexts. The structure of the harem and the extent of monogamy or polygamy has varied depending on the family's personalities, socio-economic status, and local customs. In former times some harems were guarded by eunuchs who were allowed inside. In harems of the past, slave concubines were also housed in the harem. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic servants, and other unmarried female relatives. Harem ( Arabic: حَرِيمٌ ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place harem female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. Ladies of Kabul (1848 lithograph, by James Rattray) showing unveiling in zenana areas
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